ROCKFORD — Chief Judge Joseph McGraw today said a South Beloit mom starved her infant son, but first-degree murder was not proven.

After a week-long bench trial, Kayla A. Lund, 25, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and of endangering the life of a child in the Sept. 22, 2011, death of her 7-week-old son, Jaxon.

McGraw said prosecutors proved that Jaxon died of starvation and not some disease or birth defect. All the healthy baby fat Jaxon had at birth was gone 49 days later when he died. His skeleton was visible, protruding from his emaciated frame.

“Jaxon was never taken to a doctor about his vomiting or about his weight loss, ever,” McGraw said.

Lund faces a wide range of possible sentences. She could be given probation and no prison time, or face three to 14 years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and two to 10 years for endangering the life of a child causing death. Sentences could be concurrent or consecutive based on McGraw’s discretion.

Although prosecutors asked McGraw to reject Lund’s bond, he allowed her to be on house arrest until he sentences her Sept. 4.

McGraw noted that many family members and friends testified that Lund loved and cared for Jaxon. He recalled witnesses who saw her feeding the baby and family members who seemed to confirm the baby had a problem keeping his formula down.

McGraw ruled that prosecutors did not prove Lund intended to kill Jaxon. However, he found Lund was reckless and did not care for the infant like a reasonable person should.

Lund said Jaxon was having trouble keeping down his formula, an issue she had successfully handled with her other children by reducing the amount of formula and increasing the frequency of feedings.

“She didn’t feel there was a health concern,” Nick Zimmerman, one of Lund’s public defenders, told McGraw last week.

McGraw noted that Lund lied to a family member who asked if she was taking him to the doctor because of his small size and vomiting issues. And Lund never changed the feeding regimen even after it should have become obvious Jaxon’s condition was not improving.

Jaxon weighed 7 pounds, 4 ounces at birth, but weighed less than 5 pounds when he died, prosecutors said.

McGraw agreed to consider lesser offenses suggested by Zimmerman and Lund’s other public defender, Edward Light.

Still, Hite Ross said the convictions confirm the system works.

“The judge gave the state a fair trial, but the court is neutral and the court has to make its finding based on the evidence,” Hite Ross said. “Child death cases are difficult for prosecuting offices because No. 1, you have one of the most vulnerable victims we ever see which is a child. On the other hand, intent is always proved in these kind of cases circumstantially because no one wants to believe a parent would harm their child.”

Page 2 of 2 - Zimmerman and Light declined to comment.

During the trial Zimmerman said it was possible Lund misjudged how ill Jaxon was, but said she loved the baby and didn’t intentionally harm or kill him.

Zimmerman attempted to place the cause of death in doubt by saying that not every possible disease had been ruled out. He said expert doctors who testified for the prosecution based their findings in part on readings of a scale that had not been calibrated and may have been faulty.

Hite Ross had argued this was a case of the “ultimate child abuse” because it was hidden beneath the surface: Lund appeared to be caring for the child, but Jaxon was silently starving.

“She starved this child to death, to the point that he couldn’t cry anymore. He had no energy left. He had no body fat. This child depleted every ounce of energy in his little body,” Hite Ross said.